SETI Astronomers Launch New Campaign to Eavesdrop on E.T.

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In a vast cosmic experiment equivalent to hitting "redial,"
astronomers in a dozen countries are aiming telescopes to listen
in once again on some of the stars that were part of the world's
first search for alien life 50 years ago.

The coordinated signal-searching campaign began this month to
mark the 50th anniversary of Project Ozma, a 1960 experiment that
was christened the world's first real attempt in the
search for extraterrestrial intelligence or SETI.

Like Project Ozma, which got its name from a character in L.
Frank Baum's series of books about the Land of Oz, the new search
is called Project Dorothy.

Project Ozma was conducted by
astronomer Frank Drake of the SETI Institute in Mountain
View, Calif. Drake is also famous for devising the Drake
equation, which predicts the number of alien civilizations with
whom we might be able to communicate. The formula is based on
factors including the rate of star formation in the galaxy and
the percentage of stars thought to have planets. Making educated
guesses for some of the equation's terms, scientists have used it
to predict we could find evidence of
ET intelligence within the next 25 years

"It is thrilling for me to witness the beginnings of Project
Dorothy, the continuation of my search of 50 years ago," Drake
said in a SETI announcement. "To have so many talented people
using so many telescopes in this new search, with the electronics
and computer equipment of today, is a joyful thing to me. The
equipment of today is far better than what we could have 50 years
ago and will result in both very much better and very much more
data than could be obtained then."

The anniversary observations, which began Nov. 5, will continue
throughout the month. Astronomers in Australia, Japan, Korea,
Italy, the Netherlands, France, Argentina and the United States
are taking the first shifts, searching for signs of an
intelligent civilization from a few nearby stars. [ Q&A
with SETI Pioneer Jill Tarter ]

Astronomer Shin-ya Narusawa of Nishi-Harima Astronomical
Observatory in Japan, who launched Project Dorothy, said: "Two of
the original stars from
Project Ozma Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani are the nearest
solar-type stars in the northern hemisphere. Therefore, these two
stars were the best SETI targets a half century ago. They remain
the symbol of Project Ozma and are two of the target stars for
Project Dorothy."

The new search includes some particularly promising targets for
extraterrestrial intelligence, including stars with known
planets, which modern telescopes were only recently able to
detect. The scientists are aiming for stellar systems where
planets are thought to orbit at roughly the right distance from
their suns to hold liquid water and thus, possibly, life.

"Project Dorothy vividly demonstrates just how far SETI has come
in the past 50 years," said the SETI Institute's Douglas Vakoch,
who is a member of Project Dorothy's working group. "The lessons
learned through Project Dorothy provide critical preparation for
the day we finally detect a signal from another civilization."

Though the searches undertaken by astronomers at the SETI
Institute and elsewhere over the past 50 years have not found
indications of little green men, experts say it's too early to
give up hope.

"Over the past 50 years our searches have not yet produced the
discovery we all hope for," Drake said. "This is understandable
in our vast and awesome universe it will take long, painstaking
and comprehensive searches before we will have a good chance of
success. This is the major lesson learned from previous searches.
Project Dorothy is a major step in meeting the challenge created
by this lesson."